Georgia Form IT-560 is the Individual and Fiduciary Income Tax Payment Voucher that taxpayers send to the Georgia Department of Revenue when they need more time to file their state income tax return but still owe tax by the original due date. The form is not an extension request itself; it is the payment slip that travels with a check or money order to keep penalties and interest from stacking up while the return is finished.
Filers who skip this voucher often discover the hard way that a federal extension does not pause Georgia’s payment clock. According to the Georgia Department of Revenue’s tax statistics, the agency processes more than 5 million individual income tax returns each filing season, and a meaningful share of late-payment penalties trace back to taxpayers who filed federal Form 4868 and assumed Georgia would follow suit.
- 📝 How to read every box on the current revision of Form IT-560 in plain English.
- 💵 How to calculate the right payment amount so you avoid the 0.5% per month late-payment penalty.
- 🧾 How to file IT-560 online through the Georgia Tax Center or by mail with a paper voucher.
- 👨👩👧 How three real filers — a W-2 employee, a self-employed contractor, and a fiduciary — complete the form line by line.
- ❓ Twelve FAQs that answer the field-level questions most filers Google at 11 p.m. on April 14.
What Form IT-560 Is and Who Must File It
Form IT-560 is the Individual and Fiduciary Extension Payment Voucher issued by the Georgia Department of Revenue, often shown with a revision date in the lower-left corner of the PDF. The form lets taxpayers send a tax payment with their automatic six-month extension so that Georgia’s late-payment penalty does not start running on April 16. Confirm the revision date matches the current tax year before printing, because the agency updates the layout and the mailing address from year to year.
The voucher is required for any individual, resident or nonresident, who owes Georgia income tax under O.C.G.A. § 48-7-20 and cannot file Form 500 by the April 15 deadline. Fiduciaries who file Form 501 for an estate or trust use the same IT-560 voucher when they owe tax with their extension. Corporations do not use IT-560; they use the separate Form IT-560C extension payment voucher tied to Form 600.
A federal extension on IRS Form 4868 automatically extends the Georgia filing deadline, but it never extends the payment deadline. That is the single biggest misconception this form corrects. If you owe Georgia tax and do not pay by April 15 with IT-560 attached, the state begins charging penalties and interest on April 16 even though your return is not late.
Fiduciaries should also note that estates and trusts compute tax under O.C.G.A. § 48-7-22, and the voucher routes their payment to the Fiduciary unit at DOR. Filing the right form to the right unit prevents misapplied payments that take months to trace.
Before You Start: Documents and Information You Need
Gathering paperwork before you open the voucher saves you from guessing on numbers that drive the penalty calculation. The IT-560 itself is short, but the math behind it pulls from your full federal and state return. The pre-filing checklist below covers every piece you need on the desk.
- Your Social Security Number (SSN) or ITIN. The DOR matches the voucher to your account by SSN, and a wrong digit can post your payment to a stranger’s account.
- Your spouse’s SSN if filing jointly. The order of names and SSNs on IT-560 must match the order you will use on Form 500, or the credit will not transfer cleanly.
- Your current legal name and mailing address. Use the address where the DOR can reach you for the next 12 months, because refund checks and notices follow this address.
- A reasonable estimate of your 2025 Georgia taxable income. You need this to compute expected tax under the Georgia individual income tax rates.
- Year-to-date Georgia withholding from W-2s and 1099s. Subtract this from estimated tax to find the balance due.
- Records of Georgia estimated tax payments already made. Form 500-ES payments reduce the amount you owe with IT-560.
- Your federal extension confirmation (Form 4868) if you filed one. Georgia honors it for filing, but you still need IT-560 for payment.
- The fiduciary’s FEIN if filing for an estate or trust. Estates use the FEIN, not the decedent’s SSN, on the voucher.
- A check, money order, or bank account routing and account number. Online filers use ACH debit; mail filers use a paper check made payable to Georgia Department of Revenue.
- The current mailing address printed on the revised form. The DOR has changed P.O. boxes in recent years, so use the address on the latest IT-560 PDF, not last year’s voucher.
If any item on this list is missing, the result is the same: either a delayed payment, a misapplied credit, or a penalty notice that arrives in late summer. The five minutes you spend gathering documents up front is the cheapest insurance you can buy on this form.
Where to Get the Form and How to Access It
The official voucher lives on the Georgia Department of Revenue’s forms library. The fastest path is the IT-560 form page, which always points to the current revision PDF. Bookmark this page, because earlier-year vouchers carry old mailing addresses that route your payment to the wrong P.O. box.
Tax software such as TurboTax, H&R Block, and Drake also generate IT-560 automatically when the user requests a Georgia extension with a balance due. The software fills the SSN, name, and address from your federal data, then prints the voucher with a scannable barcode at the bottom. Always verify the dollar amount on the printed voucher matches the amount you intend to pay before signing the check.
If you cannot print at home, county tax commissioner offices and many public libraries will print the PDF for free. Some Georgia DOR regional offices also keep paper copies during filing season. Walking in with a blank voucher and a check is a perfectly valid filing path.
The online alternative is to skip the paper voucher entirely and pay through the Georgia Tax Center under the Make a Payment option. The portal applies the same payment to your account as IT-560 does, with no voucher to mail.
Step-by-Step: How to Fill Out Form IT-560 Line by Line
The IT-560 voucher fits on a single page and contains roughly nine fields plus the tear-off section. The walkthrough below covers each box in the order it appears on the printed form, using the field labels exactly as the DOR prints them.
Tax Year Beginning and Ending Boxes
The form opens with two date boxes asking for the tax year beginning and ending dates. For most individuals, these are calendar-year dates, so you write 01/01/2025 and 12/31/2025 for a 2025 return filed in spring 2026.
Use the MM/DD/YYYY format with slashes, not dashes, because the DOR’s optical scanner reads slashes more reliably. Fiduciaries with fiscal-year estates use the actual fiscal-year start and end dates, not the calendar year. For example, Maria Lopez, a calendar-year individual, writes 01/01/2025 and 12/31/2025.
A common edge case is a short tax year, which happens when an estate is created mid-year or a taxpayer dies during the year. In that case, the beginning date is the date the estate opened or the date after death, and the ending date is the chosen fiscal close.
The most common mistake on this field is writing 2026 in both boxes because the filer is thinking of the year they are currently in. The consequence is that the payment posts to the wrong tax year and does not credit the 2025 return, triggering a penalty notice for 2025 even though you paid on time.
A misconception filers carry into this field is that the tax year matches the filing year. It does not. The tax year is the year the income was earned; the filing year is the year you submit the return.
Filer’s Social Security Number
The first SSN box asks for the primary filer’s nine-digit Social Security Number. Write the digits with the standard XXX-XX-XXXX format using dashes, exactly as it appears on your Social Security card.
If you are filing jointly, the primary SSN is the one that will appear first on Form 500, and that order must match here. Married couples sometimes flip the order between the federal and state returns, which causes the IT-560 payment to post to the wrong spouse’s account. Marcus Bell writes 123-45-6789 in the box if his SSN is the first one on the joint Form 500.
ITIN holders use the ITIN in the same box, also in XXX-XX-XXXX format. Estates and trusts skip this field and use the FEIN box instead, but most printed IT-560 vouchers use the same box for both numbers — read the label carefully.
The most common mistake is transposing two digits, often the middle pair, which routes your payment to a stranger’s account. Recovering a misapplied payment can take 60 to 90 days, and the DOR will continue accruing penalties on your account until the trace clears.
A misconception is that the SSN does not matter because the name and address are correct. It does. The DOR posts payments by SSN, not by name, so a wrong SSN is a wrong payment.
Spouse’s Social Security Number
If you are filing jointly, the second SSN box captures your spouse’s nine-digit number, again with dashes. Leave the box blank if you are single, head of household, or married filing separately.
The order of spouse SSNs on IT-560 must match the order on Form 500, even if that order differs from the federal return. Janet Bell writes 987-65-4321 as the spouse SSN if her husband Marcus’s SSN appears in the primary box. Couples filing separate Georgia returns each file their own IT-560 and do not list the spouse here.
A nuance is the year a spouse dies. The surviving spouse can still file jointly for the year of death, and the deceased spouse’s SSN goes in this box with the date of death noted on Form 500, not on IT-560 itself.
The most common mistake is leaving this box blank when filing jointly, which causes the payment to credit only the primary filer’s account and leaves the spouse’s portion unpaid in the system. The misconception is that joint filing automatically links both SSNs at the DOR; it does not, the voucher must list both.
Name and Address
The form asks for your name and address in a single block. Print your full legal name as it appears on your Social Security card, with last name, first name, and middle initial in the order the form prints.
Use the address where you can receive mail for at least the next 12 months, because the DOR sends notices and any refund checks to this address. Carlos Rivera writes RIVERA, CARLOS A on the name line and 1450 PEACHTREE ST NE, ATLANTA, GA 30309 on the address line.
A nuance is a P.O. Box address. The DOR accepts P.O. Boxes, so if you receive mail at a box rather than a street address, write the P.O. Box on the address line. Out-of-state filers, including former Georgia residents who owe part-year tax, write their current out-of-state address.
The most common mistake is using a nickname instead of the legal name on the SSA record. The consequence is a name-mismatch flag that can hold processing for several weeks until the DOR confirms identity. The misconception is that the DOR cross-checks names loosely; it does not, the agency uses an exact-match algorithm against SSA data.
Daytime Telephone Number
The voucher includes a phone field for a daytime telephone number. Write the area code and number in (XXX) XXX-XXXX format so a DOR clerk can reach you if there is a problem with the payment.
Use a number you actually answer during business hours, because the DOR’s tax examiners call before mailing a deficiency notice. Aisha Johnson writes (404) 555-0188 in the phone box.
A nuance is filers who do not have a landline. A cell number is fine. International numbers should include the country code in parentheses.
The most common mistake is leaving this box blank, which forces the DOR to mail every question and adds weeks to any back-and-forth on a misapplied payment. The misconception is that the DOR never calls. It does, especially when a payment posts without a matching extension request.
Amount Paid
The most important box on the voucher is amount paid, where you enter the dollar amount of the check or electronic payment in whole dollars. Write the figure right-justified in the box without a dollar sign, comma, or decimal — the scanner reads digits cleanly only when they are flush right.
To compute the amount, take your estimated 2025 Georgia tax, subtract Georgia withholding and any estimated payments, and pay the difference. Janet Bell expects $7,420 in tax, has $5,200 withheld, and paid $500 in estimated tax, so she writes 1720 in the amount paid box.
A nuance is the safe-harbor question. To avoid the late-payment penalty under O.C.G.A. § 48-7-86, you must pay at least 100% of the tax shown on the prior year’s return or 90% of the current year’s tax. Filers who land below either threshold owe penalty even after sending IT-560.
The most common mistake is rounding down aggressively to keep cash on hand. The consequence is a 0.5% per-month penalty plus interest on the shortfall under O.C.G.A. § 48-2-40. The misconception is that any payment with IT-560 stops the penalty clock; it stops the clock only on the amount you actually pay, not on the full liability.
Vendor Code (Where Applicable)
Some revisions of IT-560 carry a small vendor code box used by tax software to embed a barcode. If you are using software, leave this box as the software prints it; if you are filling the form by hand, leave it blank.
The vendor code lets the DOR’s mailroom route software-generated vouchers through a faster scanning lane. Marcus Bell, who fills the form by hand, leaves the code blank, while Carlos Rivera, who uses Drake software, sees a four-digit code printed automatically.
A nuance is software that prints the wrong code. If the code is wrong, the voucher still works, but the payment may take a few extra days to post. The most common mistake is hand-writing a guessed vendor code, which jams the scanner. The misconception is that the code is a security feature; it is purely a routing helper.
Signature Line
Some printed versions of IT-560 include a signature and date area at the bottom of the voucher portion. Sign with a wet-ink signature in blue or black ink and write the date in MM/DD/YYYY format.
If filing jointly, both spouses sign. Marcus Bell signs on the primary line and Janet Bell signs on the spouse line, both dated 04/15/2026. Fiduciaries sign in their fiduciary capacity and write Executor of the Estate of [Decedent] under the signature.
A nuance is a power-of-attorney signer, who must attach Form RD-1061 before the DOR honors the signature. The most common mistake is forgetting to sign at all, which the DOR treats as a defective voucher and can cause delayed posting. The misconception is that the check signature substitutes for the voucher signature; it does not.
Tear-Off Section and Mail Stub
The bottom of the voucher contains a perforated tear-off stub with the DOR’s mailing address. Tear along the perforation, place the voucher and your check inside an envelope, and mail to the address printed on the stub.
Do not staple the check to the voucher; the DOR’s scanner jams on staples. Use a paper clip if you must keep them together. Aisha Johnson mails her voucher and check in a standard #10 envelope to the address printed on her current-year IT-560.
A nuance is certified mail. For payments above $1,000, certified mail with return receipt gives you proof of timely filing under the mailbox rule. The most common mistake is mailing to last year’s address, which the DOR no longer monitors. The misconception is that the postmark date does not matter; it does, the postmark is the legal filing date.
Three Filled-Out Examples Using Real Scenarios
The three scenarios below walk three different filers through every section of IT-560 from start to finish.
Scenario 1: Maria Lopez, W-2 Employee with Underwithholding
Maria is a single nurse in Savannah who picked up overtime in the last quarter of 2025 and discovered in early April that she underwithheld by about $900. She files a federal extension and uses IT-560 to send Georgia the balance.
| Form Section | What Maria Enters |
|---|---|
| Tax Year Beginning | 01/01/2025 |
| Tax Year Ending | 12/31/2025 |
| Filer’s SSN | 234-56-7890 |
| Spouse’s SSN | (left blank) |
| Name | LOPEZ, MARIA |
| Address | 812 BULL ST, SAVANNAH, GA 31401 |
| Daytime Phone | (912) 555-0142 |
| Amount Paid | 900 |
| Signature and Date | Maria Lopez, 04/15/2026 |
Scenario 2: Marcus and Janet Bell, Self-Employed Joint Filers
Marcus runs a landscaping LLC and Janet teaches at a community college. They file jointly, and Marcus’s Q4 income spiked, leaving them roughly $1,720 short of safe harbor. They mail IT-560 with a check while Marcus finishes his Schedule C.
| Form Section | What the Bells Enter |
|---|---|
| Tax Year Beginning | 01/01/2025 |
| Tax Year Ending | 12/31/2025 |
| Filer’s SSN | 123-45-6789 |
| Spouse’s SSN | 987-65-4321 |
| Name | BELL, MARCUS & JANET |
| Address | 45 OAKDALE DR, MACON, GA 31204 |
| Daytime Phone | (478) 555-0199 |
| Amount Paid | 1720 |
| Signature and Date | Marcus Bell and Janet Bell, 04/15/2026 |
Scenario 3: Carlos Rivera, Fiduciary for an Estate
Carlos is the executor of his late aunt’s estate, which earned rental income in 2025. He files Form 501 for the estate and uses IT-560 to send the $3,200 balance owed under O.C.G.A. § 48-7-22.
| Form Section | What Carlos Enters |
|---|---|
| Tax Year Beginning | 01/01/2025 |
| Tax Year Ending | 12/31/2025 |
| Filer’s FEIN | 58-1234567 |
| Spouse’s SSN | (left blank, fiduciary filing) |
| Name | ESTATE OF ROSA RIVERA, CARLOS RIVERA EXECUTOR |
| Address | 1450 PEACHTREE ST NE, ATLANTA, GA 30309 |
| Daytime Phone | (404) 555-0188 |
| Amount Paid | 3200 |
| Signature and Date | Carlos Rivera, Executor, 04/15/2026 |
How to File the Completed Form
Georgia gives filers three practical channels for delivering the IT-560 payment, and each has its own URL, fee schedule, and proof-of-filing.
Online via the Georgia Tax Center. Log in or create an account at the Georgia Tax Center, choose Make a Payment, and select Extension Payment as the payment type. ACH debit from a checking or savings account is free; credit card payments carry a third-party processor fee of about 2.35% under the GTC payment FAQ. Processing time is one to two business days, and the GTC confirmation page is your proof of filing — print it or save the PDF.
By mail with the paper voucher. Make the check payable to Georgia Department of Revenue, write your SSN and 2025 IT-560 in the memo line, and mail the voucher and check to the address printed on the current-year form. Mail processing runs four to six weeks, so use certified mail with return receipt for proof. There is no fee for mailing.
In person at a regional office. The DOR’s regional offices accept walk-in payments by check, money order, or cashier’s check during business hours. Bring two copies of the voucher so the clerk can stamp one as your receipt. There is no fee, and the payment posts within five business days.
Whichever channel you choose, the payment must be initiated by April 15, 2026, for the 2025 tax year. Online payments are timestamped at submission; mailed payments are timestamped by the postmark.
What Happens After You File
Once the DOR receives your IT-560 payment, the agency posts it to your SSN or FEIN account under the tax year you wrote on the voucher. Online payments through the GTC appear in your account within one to two business days, while mailed payments can take four to six weeks during peak season.
When you eventually file Form 500 or Form 501, the IT-560 amount appears as a credit on the prior payments line of your return. You subtract it from the total tax due to arrive at the final balance owed or the refund. The DOR matches the credit by SSN and tax year, which is why the SSN and tax-year boxes on IT-560 must be exact.
If your IT-560 payment exceeds the actual tax liability, the difference becomes a refund or can be applied to the next year’s estimated tax. Refunds for paper-filed Form 500 take 8 to 12 weeks; e-filed returns generate refunds in 30 to 45 days under the DOR refund timeline.
If the payment falls short, the DOR sends a Proposed Assessment notice with the unpaid balance, late-payment penalty, and interest. You have 30 days from the notice date to pay or protest under O.C.G.A. § 48-2-46.
Mistakes to Avoid When Filling Out the Form
Form IT-560 looks deceptively short, but each box hides a way to lose money or delay processing. The list below names the ten errors that show up most often in DOR adjustment notices.
- Assuming a federal extension covers Georgia tax payment. It does not, and the late-payment penalty starts April 16 on any unpaid balance.
- Writing the wrong tax year. The payment posts to the wrong year and does not credit your current return.
- Transposing SSN digits. The payment lands on a stranger’s account and takes 60 to 90 days to recover.
- Reversing primary and spouse SSNs between IT-560 and Form 500. The credit fails to match and the DOR issues a deficiency notice.
- Rounding the payment amount down to keep cash on hand. The shortfall accrues penalty and interest until paid.
- Stapling the check to the voucher. The mailroom scanner jams and the payment is keyed in by hand, adding weeks to processing.
- Mailing to last year’s P.O. box. The DOR no longer monitors retired addresses, so the payment is returned weeks late.
- Skipping the daytime phone number. The DOR cannot call about a posting question and instead mails a notice, costing weeks.
- Using a nickname instead of the SSA legal name. A name-mismatch flag holds the payment until the DOR verifies identity.
- Paying by personal check on April 15 with no postmark protection. A delayed postmark turns a timely payment into a late one under the mailbox rule.
Each mistake on this list is preventable in under a minute of double-checking. The cost of fixing them after the fact is measured in weeks of correspondence and dollars of penalty.
Do’s and Don’ts
The seven do’s and seven don’ts below condense thirty years of filer experience into a quick checklist.
- Do verify the revision date on the voucher matches the current tax year, because old PDFs carry retired mailing addresses.
- Do pay at least 90% of your expected tax to land inside the safe-harbor rule under O.C.G.A. § 48-7-86.
- Do keep a copy of the signed voucher and the front and back of the cleared check for your records.
- Do use certified mail with return receipt for any payment over $1,000.
- Do write 2025 IT-560 and your SSN on the check memo line so the DOR can match a stray check to your voucher.
- Do file IT-560 even if you can pay only part of the balance, because partial payment reduces the penalty base.
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Do consider paying through the Georgia Tax Center to skip the mail entirely.
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Don’t rely on a federal Form 4868 extension to extend your Georgia payment deadline; it does not.
- Don’t staple the check to the voucher.
- Don’t mail the voucher without the check, because IT-560 is a payment voucher, not an extension request.
- Don’t use last year’s mailing address; pull the current PDF every year.
- Don’t sign in pencil or any color other than blue or black ink.
- Don’t round the amount paid to a number that drops you below the 90% safe-harbor threshold.
- Don’t wait for the DOR to confirm receipt before mailing your final return; the credit will appear on your account in time.
Pros and Cons of Filing on Your Own vs. With Help
Many filers can complete IT-560 in ten minutes without help, but the right answer depends on the complexity of the underlying return.
Pros of filing IT-560 on your own:
- The form is short and uses plain numbers, so most W-2 filers handle it without trouble.
- You save the $150 to $400 a CPA charges to prepare an extension package.
- You learn the safe-harbor rule once and can reuse the knowledge every year.
- Online payment through the GTC takes about five minutes from login to confirmation.
- You keep direct control of the timing, which matters when you are paying on April 15.
Cons of filing IT-560 on your own:
- You bear the full penalty risk if you under-estimate the balance due.
- You must verify the current revision date and mailing address yourself.
- Self-employed filers with multiple income streams often miscalculate estimated tax.
- Fiduciaries face fiduciary-specific rules under O.C.G.A. § 48-7-22 that are easy to miss.
- The DOR will not warn you about a shortfall until the deficiency notice arrives in late summer.
Form IT-560 vs. Form IT-303
Filers often confuse Georgia’s two extension-related forms.
| Feature | Form IT-560 (Payment) |
|---|---|
| Purpose | Payment voucher for an extension balance due |
| Filed by | Individuals and fiduciaries who owe Georgia tax |
| Deadline | Original return due date, typically April 15 |
| Required if you owe nothing | No, only file when sending payment |
| Pairs with | Form 500 or Form 501 filed within the six-month extension |
FAQs
Do I need to file IT-560 if I am owed a Georgia refund?
No. Georgia honors a federal extension automatically when no payment is owed, so a refund-position filer can skip IT-560 entirely and just file Form 500 within the six-month window.
Does a federal Form 4868 extend my Georgia payment deadline?
No. It extends the Georgia filing deadline only. You must still pay any Georgia tax owed by April 15 using IT-560 or the Georgia Tax Center.
Can I e-file IT-560 instead of mailing it?
Yes. Pay through the Georgia Tax Center under Make a Payment and select Extension Payment; the portal replaces the paper voucher.
Do I write my SSN or my spouse’s SSN first in Box 1?
Yes — write whichever SSN appears first on your Form 500. The order on IT-560 must match the order on the return so the credit posts cleanly.
Should I leave the spouse SSN box blank if I file single?
Yes. Single, head-of-household, and married-filing-separately filers leave the spouse SSN box empty.
Do I round the amount paid to whole dollars?
Yes. The amount-paid box accepts whole dollars only; the scanner ignores cents and may misread amounts written with decimals.
Can I pay less than the full balance with IT-560?
Yes. Partial payment is allowed and is better than none, but the unpaid portion accrues 0.5% per month penalty plus interest under O.C.G.A. § 48-2-40.
Does the postmark date count as the payment date?
Yes. Under the Georgia mailbox rule in O.C.G.A. § 48-2-39, a U.S. Postal Service postmark on or before April 15 is treated as timely.
Do fiduciaries write the FEIN or the decedent’s SSN on the voucher?
Yes — write the estate or trust FEIN. The decedent’s SSN belongs on the final Form 500, not on the fiduciary IT-560.
Should I sign IT-560 in blue ink?
Yes. Blue or black ink only; pencil or other colors can fail the DOR’s imaging step and trigger a rejection.
Do I need to attach a copy of Form 4868 to IT-560?
No. Georgia does not require a copy of the federal extension with the voucher; just keep it in your records.
Can I apply an IT-560 overpayment to next year’s estimated tax?
Yes. When you file Form 500, you can elect to apply any overpayment to the following year’s estimated tax on the appropriate line of the return.
Related reading
- How to Fill Out Georgia Form 500-ES (w/Examples) + FAQs
- How to Fill Out Georgia Form 600T (w/Examples) + FAQs
- How to Fill Out Georgia Form G-1003 (w/Examples) + FAQs
- How to Fill Out Georgia Form G-7 (w/Examples) + FAQs
- How to Fill Out Georgia Form IT-303 (w/Examples) + FAQs
- How to Fill Out Georgia Form ST-3 (w/Examples) + FAQs
- How to Fill Out Georgia Form CD 100 (w/Examples) + FAQs